The flight was excellent, and the Tupolev Tu-114 made an impressive landing at Andrews AFB
When President Eisenhower and the American delegation arrived for the 1955 superpower summit in Geneva in four-engined propliners and Khrushchev arrived in a modest, twin-engine Ilyushin Il-14 transport, Khrushchev felt embarrassed. Khrushchev, who was known for being a showman in the international arena, chose to fly to the United States for his historic visit in 1959 on the massive Tupolev Tu-114 because he didn’t want to be shown up by the Americans once more.
However, as JP Santiago explains in a fascinating article that appeared on his website Tails Through Time, Soviet planners were not thrilled at the idea since 80% of the route between Moscow and Washington would be over water and as Aeroflot, the operator of the Tu-114 had infrequently conducted trans-oceanic flights at the time, lacked training with ditching techniques, sea survival, and the use of life rafts and life jackets.
Khrushchev was adamant about making a “grand entrance” on the first visit of a Soviet leader to the US, despite calls from the KGB and the Communist Party Politburo to change his mind. Should the airliner have to ditch, the Soviet Navy had ships stationed every 200 miles along the route, and the KGB even constructed a model fuselage and tested it in a sizable swimming pool in Moscow to simulate various water evacuation scenarios.
The flight went off without a hitch, and the airplane itself was quite the superstar when it landed at Andrews AFB, as described by Von Hardesty in his book Air Force One: The Aircraft that Shaped the Modern Presidency. Khrushchev had been offered a helicopter tour of the city by Eisenhower, but he declined because he thought someone was planning to kill him by throwing him out of the aircraft. He wouldn’t agree unless Eisenhower assured him that they would be riding in the same chopper.
The Aeroflot Tu-114 faced a storm in Greenland during the return flight to Moscow after his historic tour of the United States, and St. Elmo’s fire danced all over the airframe as the aircraft briefly lost contact with Moscow. Although Khrushchev was asleep and unaroused during the storm, the crew worried that a loss of contact may send Moscow into a panic and fuel suspicions of a U.S. plan. Fortunately, the huge airliner made a safe landing in Moscow, ending another unreported anxious Cold War moment.
Photo by FORTEPAN / Magyar Hírek folyóirat via Wikipedia
